Our everyday life is still characterized by masks, contact reduction and tests. A look at the Bundesliga stadiums also shows that we are still in an exceptional situation.
The start of the second half of the season was formative for me personally in this respect. I was allowed to follow the match between FC Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach in the stadium. Empty ranks, spooky atmosphere: This evening made me realize once again how far we are from the state that we knew as normal before the pandemic.
The effects of the pandemic will leave lasting traces in all areas of life. Corona is an accelerator of developments – also in football.
Even before the pandemic, it was foreseeable that the Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga were facing important decisions. The advancing digitization with simultaneous globalization has enormous consequences for established business models.
Corona has once again increased and multiplied the challenges for professional football. The virus has shown us as a society and also German football how quickly and sensitively we can be hit. And then how dramatically and quickly things change.
Massive impact on international competition
And things don’t change in the same way for everyone, because the conditions are very different. While German football was a global pioneer with its elaborate hygiene concept for the restart of the Bundesliga after the first lockdown in 2020, we are now falling behind. In other top European leagues, the stadiums are full. In the Bundesliga, on the other hand, due to political regulations, only a few or no fans at all were recently allowed – now, as a first step, an increased upper limit of 10,000 is in the room.
In Corona times, football is often no longer a community experience.
(Photo: GETTY IMAGES)
Nonetheless, this situation has massive repercussions. impact on stadium mood; to what you see on TV and video screens around the world; Ultimately, it has an impact on the economic situation of the clubs – and in times of significantly fuller stadiums in England, France, Italy and Spain, it also has a massive impact on international competition.
In addition to the emotional and social consequences, the economic impact in Germany can hardly be overestimated. The situation is affecting many clubs.
If you take the last season before Corona (2018/19) as a benchmark, then the past two seasons alone cost German professional football almost 800 million euros in ticket and catering revenues. Given the capacity constraints, post-season losses could be as high as €1.3 billion over three seasons. That’s more than national media rights bring in annually!
Another important factor is that football is a community experience. That applies to the team on the field, in the district, state or federal league, and it also applies to the fans who make football a social event; to one of the last remaining campfires of our time, we last experienced that in the games up to the winter break.
It was a setback and incomprehensible that fans were largely excluded again on the last matchdays. Football takes place outdoors, organizers are able to only admit vaccinated and recovered spectators, clubs call for vaccinations outside the stadium and offer incentives, admission is staggered.
More support for the vaccination and corona campaign is difficult to imagine. Instead of in the stadium, groups of fans who want to experience the community event meet in unventilated pubs. From my heart. But these rules were incomprehensible.
The current easing can only be the beginning
The admission of 10,000 fans is gratifying in view of the current incidence situation, but it is certainly only a beginning on the way to normality. We therefore continue to expect solutions from federal and state politicians that are understandable, practicable and forward-looking – and a perspective that does not have a fixed upper limit, but rather a step-by-step plan, for example. In my view, the effect of the still severe restrictions on the bond between clubs and their fans should not be underestimated.
There is no doubt that we are experiencing a turning point. But this caesura can also be an opportunity if we recognize the signs of the times and reflect on the core. What is it about in the end? We want to inspire people! This is the basis from which everything else is derived. And ultimately also economic success.
Clubs and the league must focus more on the needs of the fans, who are not just customers. This means all fans: the “all-rounders” who accompany their team to every game, as well as the fans in the family blocks and in the business areas, the organized fan groups as well as the Tiktokers and those who primarily watch highlights.
In Germany, in Europe, all over the world. We have to ask ourselves: What do fans want? What new experiences, offers and services can we offer? But also: What do we have to keep?
It will be one of the major tasks of the DFL and all clubs to provide convincing answers to these questions. Only then will it be possible to maintain and expand the popularity and radiance of the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 while at the same time guaranteeing the economic prosperity and stability of the leagues.
Keywords here are, for example, innovative forms of presentation and new digital marketing models at home and abroad. It’s about securing the success of German professional football on the foundation of its great tradition and its values.
Now, as with the restart in 2020 after the first lockdown, it is important to be brave and courageous together again and to seek solidarity between politics, sport and society in order to walk the path out of this Omicron wave together.
The author: Donata Hopfen is CEO of the German Football League DFL.